|
|
||
|
|
|||
Whenever I prepare notes for these Sabbath studies, it is a blessing to be taught by Yahweh’s Spirit. Even though I often have a principle in mind that I believe will be of use to the Church, thoughts and knowledge come to me that I did not have at the beginning of the writing process, and I always end up with something that is far better than I could have ever planned. I cannot take any credit for that, except that I add my “voice” to what I am shown, and even that is a gift that I did not earn, so all glory is truly my Father’s. The Scriptures tell us that in the hour we need it, Yahweh’s Spirit will give us the right words to say, (Mat 10:19) and almost every week I see that promise fulfilled. That is one way to be taught by Yahweh, and as I said, it is a blessing. But there is another way to learn that I cherish as well, and that is to be taught by Yahweh through the brethren.
Whenever I hear a study by another messenger, I get inspired in turn. Looking over the various websites, articles and books that the CSDA Church has produced over the years, I may have done the majority of the actual writing, but they are based on things that I have learned, often from Pastor’s articles, studies, comments during discussions, or just conversations we have had that I recall. There is no cause for pride or self-sufficiency, only gratitude that I have been given the opportunity to speak of my Creator and Savior in beautiful and meaningful ways.
The monthly studies that Bro. L. shares with the Church are truly opportunities for me to rest and rejoice in this other kind of learning, and while he was speaking last week about the Testimony of Righteousness, I was once again inspired so that, even though I was very much paying attention to what he was saying, I was also typing as thoughts came to me, and I produced a whole page of notes. I would encourage us to speak to one another of blessings, of beautiful and holy things, and we will inspire one another, edify the Church, strengthen our baptismal candidates, and sanctify ourselves with our own words. That is the meaning and fulfillment of the verse, “Then they that feared Yahweh spake often one to another, and Yahweh hearkened, and heard it, and a Book of Remembrance was written before Him for them that feared Yahweh, and that thought upon His name.” (Mal 3:16)
So, as I listened to Bro. L. speaking to us about the Testimony of Righteousness, I was thinking of Righteousness by Faith…
“Righteousness by Faith” is a phrase with which we in this Divine Family are well familiar, but we cannot take it for granted that those with whom we speak have the same understanding that we do. In fact, I will say, and we can hardly be surprised by this, that both words – righteousness and faith – have been misunderstood, no doubt at Satan’s instigation, to be passive principles. This is, I think, one of the great failings of modern theology. It has accepted the world’s definition and understanding of these spiritual concepts.
Rightly understood, faith is positive, active; it is an action word. It is a choice, a decision, to accept something as real to the point that we act on it, we trust in it, and we expect providence and revelation to bear it out according to that expectation. We read, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) That is key, that faith is substance. It is manifest reality, as real as the chair in which you might be sitting, the air that you breathe, and the heart that is beating in your chest. The things we hope for are made real, made substance, through faith. As sinners, we came to know the Law of Yahweh through faith, and to understand that we were guilty of its violation. The Law, its requirements, and its penalties, were made real to us, because we believed them, and that they were applicable to our lives and experiences. That was the first step to being atoned with our Father, acknowledging our guilt and, as the Holy Spirit convicts us, repentance.
We read that faith is the evidence of things not seen. That is also key. People are convicted in earthly courts, and in spiritual judgment, based on evidence. Evidence is what leads to the decision of guilt or innocence, and evidence of our faith convicts us of our Father’s love and forgiveness so that, when we repent, we then receive faith that we place in Him to rescue us from the just and fair consequences of our sins. But now, how can we receive faith after repentance, if it is faith that led us to conviction and repentance?
This is the miracle of grace. Faith is something we receive from Yahweh, and then return to Him, like the tithe, in an ever expanding cycle of sanctification. As He gives us faith, we exercise that faith by obedience to His commands regardless of perceived limitations, regardless of potential consequences and, like the faithful servant who increased his talents in Matthew 25, we receive more. We know that, objectively speaking, there is no “more” or “less” faith, just as there are no “levels” of Christianity. One is, or is not, born again and filled with the Spirit. We do, however, learn more clearly what that means, and so our understanding of the faith we have been given deepens as we make use of it through righteousness.
Righteousness is, likewise, not something that just happens to us. It is something we project, we produce, into the world. Righteousness is behavior, activity that reflects Yahweh’s principles, because through faith we have become agents and exemplars of those principles. As James writes, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)
Pure religion is not to know, or to believe, or to contemplate. It is not to study, or understand, or to feel. Pure religion is to do; it is to exercise agape-love toward others, to practice kindness, to speak on behalf of those with weaker voices, and to examine one’s thoughts and feelings to ensure that they are like Christ’s as we come to understand Him ever more accurately as time draws to a close.
All those things I have mentioned, to know, to believe, to study, to understand… these come about because of faith, and they cause us to have that pure religion that “does.” Thus, from the beginning, and forever after, it has been “righteousness by, or because of, faith.”
Because we know, and believe, and study, and understand, we are given the power to do the works of righteousness. We do not sit back and let righteousness happen to us, as if it were an arbitrary label. The Christianity of the world will read a verse like this, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Gal 3:6) They will say, “Look, Abraham did not need to do anything, only believe, and he was given the label ‘righteous.’” The statement on its own is true, but it is not the end of the story, nor is it the complete picture. Paul agrees with the sentiment, saying, “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.’ Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” (Rom 4:2-4)
But again, that is not the end of it. Abraham was not just given a label, and then sat down a rock to enjoy his new status as “Righteous.”
What did Yahshua say concerning the righteousness of Abraham? With the Pharisees, who prided themselves on being Abraham’s children, and thus inheritors of his status of righteousness, Yahshua spoke. “They answered and said unto Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Yahhsua saith unto them, ‘If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God; this did not Abraham.” (John 8:39, 40)
Those who have the faith of Yahshua do the works of Yahshua. Those who have the righteousness of Abraham do the works of Abraham, willing to obey the voice of Yahweh, even though the commands were sometimes strange: “Leave your homeland and your family, and go to a land I will show you.” “Have a child with your wife, even though you are both very old.” “Sacrifice the only son you have begotten through your covenanted wife, even though I promised to give you many descendants through him.” Because Abraham had genuine faith, he genuinely did, or set out to do, all the works placed before him.
The modern Christian will see the first part, and say, “I believe in God, and that makes me righteous,” but they will then reject the Biblical definitions of these words; they will then reject righteousness by faith, saying, “I have faith, I am already righteous,” ignoring what it means to be righteous, to truly hold that label. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” (1John 3:7) Sadly, the children of this world have let men and demons deceive them about the meaning of faith, and the meaning of righteousness.
If you have been awake, and paying attention, during the last two studies, the one by me, and the one last week by Bro. L., you will have heard that “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” (Mat 12:35) We both referenced, or directly quoted, this verse in the course of our presentations. This is another way of expressing righteousness by faith. Faith is held in the heart and mind. Righteousness comes out of our mouths, and through the actions of our bodies. One is the cause, and the other is the effect. One is the direct gift, and the other is the gift of using our blessings to create goodness in our Father’s name.
But how does it happen? How do we go from cause to effect? How do we go from faith to righteousness? It is by the decision, it is by the will. It is through what I have been saying, that both faith and righteousness are active principles – not passive, but active. They are decisions we can make through the grace of our Father, and actions we do make because Christ is in us, the expectation of glory.
It is actually quite simple, so simple in fact that it happens without learning the theology of it. It is useful for us to examine this so that we may understand it and explain it, but for the saint, righteousness is the natural state of the being, just as nobody teaches the spider to spin its webs, or the birds to fly. Because of the deceptions in the world, those who know these things already do have a responsibility to explain them to others, and that sounds contradictory, that the Holy Spirit teaches us, but we also have human teachers… but this takes me back to what I said at the very beginning, that these are two kinds of blessings, to learn directly from Yahweh, and to learn from His messengers.
He who learns best from Yahweh does not despise the testimony of the brethren, and he who learns best from Bible studies and deep consideration of the Word does not despise the gift of insight that the Spirit gives. The Spirit speaks to every saint, and draws him toward sanctification, but the Spirit also speaks to the brethren so that we have examples and lessons for one another. These two things, working together, perfect the saint and make us all ready for the returning Son of Yahweh, just as the Scriptures say.
So we learn from the Spirit, and we learn from the brethren, because we are covenanted to both, because we are bound to both by love, as the commandments teach us. And what we learn is that we are free, in Christ we are free to truly choose righteousness despite our sinful origins, and our currently sinful flesh. Ellen White phrases it this way, which I think is very to-the-point and easy to understand: “Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or unto disobedience.” [Testimonies for The Church, Vol 5, p. 513]
Of course, I will always use the Scriptures to support any principle drawn from another source, and so we may read verses such as the following by way of verifying the idea here:
“I call Heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” (Deu 30:19)
Here is the end of the first chapter of Proverbs, the very book about wisdom: “Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me, for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of Yahweh. They would none of My counsel; they despised all My reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” (Pro 1:28-33)
And of course, of the last days we see before our eyes, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:14)
Each human soul is called up to the judgment. It is called to make a decision, a choice. Those who do not know Yahweh have no strength to choose life, even if they recognize the decision before them. Those who know the Father and Son are given the power to exercise the will in righteousness. It is not something they earn, or deserve, or even necessarily understand, but it is something they do, because their faith leads to righteousness by its very nature.
The choice, expressed in words and actions, reveals the genuine nature of the faith that they have received in being born again, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit.
As we are sanctified, as we learn more and more of what this means, we learn to separate the desires of the flesh from the desires of the Spirit. One is the temptation, the other is the aspiration, which means the “hope,” the thing hoped-for of which faith is the substance. When the aspiration is inspired, we know the mind of Christ consciously. The carnal man lives in, and fulfills, the temptation. The saint lives in, and fulfills, the aspiration. That which we desire, we do, unlike Paul in Romans 7, who, reflecting on his time before his conversion, says, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:19, 24)
We walk not according to the flesh. We fulfill not the lusts of the flesh, because we choose (by the power of Christ) to live in the aspiration, in the desire of Yahweh that shines on our minds and enlightens our consciences.
How do we accomplish this? As a saint, how do we refine it? As a sinner who is seeking repentance, or a non-member who is seeking baptism, how do you obtain it? It is by the Word of Yahweh, which becomes the Word of our mouths. Get that part, and get it very well, because this is the difference between the sinner and the saint. I say again: the Word of Yahweh, the promises, the instructions, the reality, must become the word of your mouth. You must say just what the Scriptures say, and nothing contrary. Speak the truth. Speak the truth in Yahshua. Say only what the Scriptures say of you. I am more than a conqueror. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. I have overcome the world. I have kept the faith. We know these promises, but the saint says them when they are important to be said, and because the word of his mouth is the very Word that Yahweh has spoken, his will is exercised in righteousness and He does what pleases the Father. When those in the world are faced with a challenge, they do not speak the words of Yahweh. They speak of their challenges, their sorrows, the struggle they are facing. They say these things, not to figure out the solution, or to ask for assistance or prayer, but to seem noble and strong and brave for being so disadvantaged… but such speech does not exercise the will in righteousness. It does not make the choice that the Scriptures we read are calling humanity to make. There can be no righteousness, because no faith is present in that heart to be spoken into the universe.
But we know what we do as children of the Most High. We give voice to the reality of faith. When faced with two choices, one of temptation and one that pleases Yahweh, we speak the reality of faith. We say, “I choose thing A.” We say, “I do not want thing B.”
Even if the prompting of your flesh, your desire, tends toward Thing B, you say, “In my flesh, I am tempted… but I separate my spirit from my flesh, because they are at war with one another, and I want to do those things that please my Father in Heaven,” and so I do. My testimony goes from, “I want to please Him,” to, “I do please Him.” And why? Because we spoke the desire of our divine nature. We said, “I want to do righteousness, and therefore I choose to do righteousness.” We speak the words, and sometimes it is useful to say it literally, openly, when tempted, “I desire righteousness.” When we have faith, we speak faith, and our faith is rewarded. We have righteousness by faith.
Consider when Joseph, in Egypt, was approached by Potiphar’s wife. “And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, ‘Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen 39:7-9)
Joseph did not say, “No, because you are ugly. No, because you repulse me.” Joseph said, “No, because I choose righteousness.” It is my desire to choose righteousness, to reject “this great wickedness and sin against God.” He spoke the words at his tempter, at his temptation, and so he was able to resist always, continually, as the next verse says, “And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.” (Gen 39:10)
It is Satan’s deception that a temptation will last forever, that it will not go away unless it is fulfilled. It is Satan’s very effective weapon, this thought that we will forever be fighting against the inclinations of the flesh. This is not so. As it is written, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) Now, in Joseph’s case, Satan fled from him to plot a worse set of circumstances, but even in that, Yahweh as glorified, and Joseph was elevated in the land. No weapon formed against us can do us harm, when we speak the words of faith, and let them produce in us the choice for righteousness.
Yahweh says this about the tithes, but really, the principle applies to every interaction that He has with us: “‘Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith,’ saith Yahweh of Hosts, ‘if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.’” (Mal 3:10)
What is true in money, a relatively small “talent,” is true in any talent, including the talent and gift of faith. We offer it as a sacrifice, we receive it back as a reward. We speak those things we believe, that we expect, and then we shortly see that our testimony becomes, “It was so. It is so. It will always be so.” When faced with a temptation, we say it aloud, and say it without doubting, “I do not want this.” You will find that, even if your senses at first resist the draw of faith, they bend to the sanctified use of your will, of your freedom, given to you in Christ, to decide. The will is the deciding power that Yahweh has placed within you to use, to use with your mind and with your words, because faith and righteousness are active principles, contrary to what Satan has long taught. Your soul’s desire, expressed in words of faith, becomes so; the desire for the carnal enticement withers, and you do always righteousness by that faith. You do always those things that please our Father.
What I have spoken today is truth. What you are to do is to take this knowledge and make it into testimony, both for yourself, and to others. Make it into a practiced experience. By your experience, you explain to sinners what righteousness is, and set before them an example to either accept, or reject, the gift of life everlasting. This is how we become angels of the harvest, who gather for our Father’s Kingdom. May we ever be grateful for what our Father has given to us, and what we have within us to share with others.
David.
An Enduring Witness
“Paul and his fellow workers proclaimed the doctrine of righteousness by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. They presented Christ as the one who, seeing the helpless condition of the fallen race, came to redeem men and women by living a life of obedience to God’s law and by paying the penalty of disobedience. And in the light of the cross many who had never before known of the true God, began to comprehend the greatness of the Father’s love.” [Acts of The Apostles, p. 207]
“The power of the will is not valued as it should be. Let the will be kept awake and rightly directed, and it will impart energy to the whole being and will be a wonderful aid in the maintenance of health. It is a power also in dealing with disease. Exercised in the right direction, it would control the imagination and be a potent means of resisting and overcoming disease of both mind and body.” [The Ministry of Healing, p. 246]
“It is your privilege to trust in the love of Jesus for salvation, in the fullest, surest, noblest manner; to say, He loves me, He receives me; I will trust Him, for He gave His life for me. Nothing so dispels doubt as coming in contact with the character of Christ. He declares, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out;’ that is, there is no possibility of My casting him out, for I have pledged My word to receive him. Take Christ at His word, and let your lips declare that you have gained the victory.
“Is Jesus true? Does He mean what He says? Answer decidedly, Yes, every word. Then if you have settled this, by faith claim every promise that He has made, and receive the blessing; for this acceptance by faith gives life to the soul. You may believe that Jesus is true to you, even though you feel yourself to be the weakest and most unworthy of His children. And as you believe, all your dark, brooding doubts are thrown back upon the archdeceiver who originated them. You can be a great blessing if you will take God at His word. By living faith you are to trust Him, even though the impulse is strong within you to speak words of distrust.” [Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 517]